LeBron and company reportedly wanted Mark Jackson

In a report from Adrian Wojnarowski of Yahoo Sports, details came out that LeBron James and his agent Rich Paul had a plan to get the Cleveland Cavaliers to hire Mark Jackson as the successor to David Blatt. This comes to light, of course, after the firing of David Blatt and the promotion of Tyronn Lue.

Woj outlined the plan that was formed by James’ and Paul’s Klutch Sports agency where they would add Mark Jackson to their team and then they would slowly but surely push David Blatt out of the head coaching spot and pave the way for Mark Jackson. However, there was one major issue with their plan, via Yahoo Sports:

In the end, here was the problem for Klutch Sports’ original plan: Cleveland refused to hire Jackson. General manager David Griffin is too well-connected in the NBA, too knowledgeable of the truths inside Jackson’s Warriors regime to let that happen. So much of Griffin’s job has been to manage the constant demands of James’ camp and the volatility of owner Dan Gilbert. As much as anything, his job has been to bridge the chaos above and below him.

Tyronn Lue became their sort of “backup plan” when James and company realized that Mark Jackson was not going to get the job. Since last season, James had been more and more combative in voicing his differences with Blatt in practices. Also, there were all of the rumors, drama, and head butting of the two through the media and during games.

So, here we are in the present day, and the Klutch Sports team had their wishes granted. Blatt is out, Lue is in. LeBron is somewhat happier, but Klutch Sports didn’t get their business venture that they hoped would come to fruition. When it’s all said and done, that’s what this whole fiasco seemed to be about. As Woj pointed out, a big part of this deal happening with Mark Jackson was the fact that he was going to sign with the Klutch Sports agency so that all three of these guys could share the wealth. I’m not sure if LeBron and Jackson were friends from an earlier time, but this whole plan has a big “back room, shady” kind of feeling attached to it. There was no mention that LeBron wanted Mark Jackson as the head coach due to his track record or due to his schemes. Not a lot of coaches get the ax after leading their team to finals appearance and a 30-11 record at the halfway point of the next season. On the other hand, there are not a lot of players that have the kind of influence on a team that LeBron has either.

The Klutch Sports crew made this plan to maximize the amount of money they could rake in. LeBron controls the destiny of the Cleveland Cavaliers and everyone knows that, but the less talked about situation is that Klutch Sports has ruled the agency scene in Cleveland too. They got Tristan Thompson his money, LeBron his max deal on a one-year contract, and now they get the coach fired as well. If LeBron fails to win a championship in Cleveland, the biggest question will be who is the person to blame?